ANNE BROOKE

I write gritty novels, energetic short stories and often quite dark poetry. I am also a regular reviewer for the Vulpes Libris review site

I grew up on an apple farm in the heart of rural Essex. After gaining 3 A levels and 1 S Level, in which my specialist subjects were Oscar Wilde and Lord Byron, I read English at Durham University. There I focused on Medieval and Old English, and must be one of the few people who has read the Anglo-Saxon poem, “Beowulf”, in the original language. However, I remember almost nothing about it now.

After University, I spent six months doing voluntary work before taking a series of administrative jobs in insurance, education and legal conferencing. When I could stand it no more, I went back to Durham University to take my MA in Medieval English and Latin. My final dissertation concerned the love poetry written by James I of Scotland and Charles, duc d’Orleans (although not addressed to each other), both of whom were separately held hostage by a foreign power for many years, thus earning the departmental shorthand title of “Anne’s sex and bondage thesis.”

I married my husband in 1993 and moved to Surrey, where I have lived for the last seventeen years. I work part-time for Surrey University in Student Care Services. Interests include playing bad golf, theatre-going, amateur gardening, reading books with at least one dead body in them, and of course writing, which - sometimes - keeps me sane.